Winter is sooooo gray. Mostly.

What have you all been up to since New Year's Eve? Our days have been pretty dull for the most part. Winter in Denmark is gray and cold, and we're all hunkered down trying to stay warm and cheerful through it all.

Marabel has it figured out.

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As if the gray weather weren't already kind of a downer, we had to sit through the presidential inauguration in Danish class, the roof started leaking, and we had to figure out how to file our U.S. federal income taxes on our own for the first time. It's been quite a year already!

We tried to avoid watching the inauguration, but our Danish instructor had other ideas. I mean, I can understand. All of Denmark was on the edge of their seats to see if he would make any bold statements about Greenland in his inaugural address. I never expected to cry in front of my classmates, but surprise! Ugh. Enough about that. On to the leaky roof.

It's actually not as exciting as it sounds. Khloe stepped in water in the hallway, and we looked up and saw the ceiling dripping a little. We texted our landlord, they told us how to fix it, and Zac had a perilous climb to the attic, where he disconnected a ventilation pipe, dumped the overflow into a bucket, and that was that. Haha.

And taxes! Did you know that the United States is one of the only countries that makes its citizens continue filing income taxes every year, even if they are not working or living in the country? There are some agreements in place between countries (but most importantly, between the U.S. and Denmark) that if we are paying taxes in the country where we live, we should get a tax credit for that money on our U.S. federal income taxes and not actually end up owing anything to the U.S. government. Our tax advisor last year said we could file for free on the IRS website and it should be pretty easy.

You know it wasn't.

You can really only use their free e-file quick form things if you make under a certain amount of money. In that instance, you just answer some questions and then it puts all the info into the right forms for you and gives you the option to submit your taxes electronically. We couldn't do that though because we didn't meet the income criterion.

The option we were left with was filling out all of the tax forms on our own and then e-filing them. The opportunity for error in that case goes up exponentially. There are about a million forms and worksheets and schedules to fill out, and then you are following the manual for the 1040 form as well as the guide for U.S. citizens living internationally, and it's a lot of reading and stressing.

I got it all filled out, but there was one section where I marked a box that said I needed to attach an explanation. When I tried to find a way to attach my explanation, it said that we couldn't submit forms electronically if any attached statements were needed because the system wasn't set up to upload them. Thus, my only option was to mail all of our tax forms to the U.S. via PostNord.

I mailed them on the 11th. They got stopped in the U.S. at customs and have been held there ever since. So who knows what will happen?

We also have to report our foreign bank accounts to the U.S. That happens through a different website, so I hope I did that right, too. I don't know how U.S. citizens abroad manage all this crap year after year. It's awful. But it's over. It's over. Until next year, I guess.

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Also, it was Harrison's 8th birthday! He's getting very tall, he loves airplanes, and he's been reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He enjoys painting, singing, dancing, playing Fortnite, riding his bike, and playing in the snow.

Khloe decorated his doorway so he could wake up to a fun surprise, even though his real birthday was on a school day.

He took flødboller to school for his classmates, and he got the option to open two presents on his actual birthday.

He was trying to look cool.

He got lots of birthday cards, and he had a fun day at school. On Saturday, we picked up his friend and took a family +1 trip to the zoo in Copenhagen. The boys actually had the most fun running around the various playgrounds at the zoo, running through the labyrinths and posing in all of the little props, but they took time to look at a few animals, too.

We had kind of hoped to see the five little lion cubs, but it was far too cold for any of the lions to be out. We had some exciting interactions with the leopards, the seals were making all kinds of incredible noises, and the elephants were being really playful. We also got to see the baby anteater. We couldn't see the baby tapir because there was an adult couple completely hogging the glass and none of the other people could see at all. Lame.

The red pandas were being super precious in the trees, and the whole hippo bloat was outside blowing air out of their nostrils to scare the ducks off of their pond. Even though it was cold, it was a pretty good zoo day.

The boys wanted churros and softice for treat time. Khloe and Kaden saw a Valentine's Day special called the "Love Nest," which was a churro, ice cream, white chocolate, meringue, and strawberry sprinkle treat for two. I told them they could get it, but that they had to pose for a picture with their Love Nest. 

I bought the boys giant lollipops to keep them busy on the long train ride home, and it worked beautifully. It was a very sugar-filled day.

At home, we made Harrison's requested dinner: chicken sandwiches.

He opened the rest of his presents and then we had a movie night. We watched the live-action Beauty and the Beast and he got a pint of Ben & Jerry's all to himself.

Oh, and if you're wondering why his hair looks like that, it's because of his siblings. They tag-teamed a haircut for him, and, well, it could've gone better. We're waiting for it to grow out.

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Danish class is going pretty well. We have started Module 4. The difficulty level gets a little steeper at this level, and our instructor doesn't speak to us in English. Like ever. Somehow, we understand. I guess we're getting better.

We are learning about modalverberer and the difference between nogen, noget, and nogle. I'm sure we'll be right like 60% of the time.

We should take the test in May. On more module to go after this one!

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Everyone's been taking time for music in our house.

Harrison, as I mentioned, really likes to sing and dance. He can rap the first part of the rap in Eminem's Rap God and can apparently rap an entire 3-minute Fortnite rap. I don't know if that means we are good or bad parents, but he is impressive nonetheless.

Kaden sings (mostly when he's alone in the basement), and he has tried to play a little guitar and trumpet lately. I like hearing him pick up the instruments and mess around.

Khloe has been practicing guitar and bass. She's really improving and plays some very pretty little melodies.

Zac has been playing violin and guitar, trying to build up his calluses again and whatnot. I like listening to him play. I pick up the guitar once in a while. I want to keep at the accordion, but I'm a little afraid that there are mold spores (it smells very musty) that it's spraying into my lungs, so I'd really like to get it serviced before I continue.

Khloe has also started using her tattoo markers she got for Christmas. She runs out of room on her left arm, so I've been letting her practice on me.

The insects are cool. I wouldn't mind if she wanted to practice drawing Star Wars characters though...

* * *

We don't really do Valentine's Day. (I mean, as a family. Danes still celebrate it begrudgingly. I believe I was told, "We think - no offense, Lindsey - that it's a crappy commercial American holiday and a scourge upon Denmark." Or something like that.)

But Zac and I went on a date anyway - Opeth was playing at DR Koncerthuset and we had purchased tickets last year sometime. It just happened to be on Valentine's Day. We got chicken sandwiches and a beer at a place called Fatty's and had a very nice time.

While we were at the concert in the big city, Harrison was at a sleepover, and the older kids had friends over for a sleepover. They all planned to go ice skating, but when they got there, there was a hockey game in the works, so they just hung out at home instead.

We got back pretty late, but not as late as we thought! Normally when we are in Copenhagen late, we get the metro to the train to the station in Birkerød, and then we stare at the bus ticker sadly, realizing we have missed the last bus of the night. In that case, we have to walk like 40 minutes home. (Or pay a taxi, but pshhh.) On *this* night, we were feeling spry and we sprinted like hell up a long set of stairs at the metro station in Copenhagen to catch the train that was getting ready to leave. This silly decision actually got us back to Birkerød station in time to catch the last bus of the night home! It was a tiny, tiny miracle that we appreciated a lot.

And I am pleased to say that the house was still standing. I'm glad we can trust our kids to keep things in check when their friends are over and we don't always have to be around.

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So that was Valentine's Day! Now, it's almost Fastelavn! If you don't remember what that is, it's a Danish holiday where kids get all dressed up and beat a barrel full of candy to hopefully be crowned Cat Queen or King. There are yummy pastries called Fastelavnsboller, and the kids have a party at school.

Harrison dressed up as a zombie park ranger.

Fastelavn will actually be next Sunday, March 2nd. We don't really have plans, but I think there is a little event in town, and also, Kaden's baseball team is going to have fun and games that siblings can attend, so maybe we will all go to his practice with him. We'll see.

* * *

Today, Zac and I tried out the gym at work! We found out you can go on the weekends, so we went for about an hour. We had the place to ourselves, and it was actually a really good experience. The gym is laid out nicely and has good equipment and space. The locker rooms are incredible. It's clear people are using the gym during the week. We will probably not be those people. But we will be the weekend users for sure.

Oh, and look what we found when we went down the stairs to the gym!!!

I don't know how it got there or where it came from, but I do know that Foos In Love are coming back, baby!

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Harrison is maybe quitting swim lessons - his heart hasn't really been in it lately, and he misses the private lessons he used to get with Narine. The group lessons just don't live up to his expectations, I guess. His friends play rugby though, so they are trying to recruit him for that. I'm not sold yet on the level of commitment as parents. Haha!

Kaden has some exciting baseball tournaments coming up in the next few months. He'll even be traveling to Berlin to play!

Khloe is still really enjoying volleyball, and she even got to be in a Danish commercial! Check her out at 18 seconds. It's a commercial for the Spar Nord foundation. They donate a lot of money to the community, and I'm not exactly how their donations are related to Khloe's volleyball club, but they were part of the filming, so that's fun!

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And I know I started this post out by saying it was all gray and stuff here, but we do get sunshine once in a while! Look!